"Guardians of the Deep" could more or less be described as a rip-off of Peter Benchley's "The Deep", only … this version is a whole lot better and numberless times more entertaining! It's a very silly and immensely grotesque adventure movie, with highly implausible stunts and unrealistic characters, but the whole thing is so spirited and so vividly directed by Enzo G. Casterllari that you can't help but be amused. Spaghetti western hero Franco Nero (wearing a blond wig that nearly makes him unrecognizable) stars as a treasure hunter on a quest to recover $10 million from a plane wreck that lies on the bottom of the Caribbean Sea. The valuable loot is located nearby a shark-infested cave, but that can't be an issue, as Mike also happens to be a fearless and ruthless shark hunter who doesn't even hesitate to crash down in the open sea with a parachute to take on a Tiger Shark with his bare hands, now how about that?!? His search is complicated when other parties learn about the treasure as well, like a CIA agent on "holiday" and a bunch of corrupt local police officers. "Guardians of the Deep" features a constantly high level of spectacle & suspense and the film benefices extremely from the lusciously exotic photography by Raúl Cubero. This film is very beautiful to look at … and to listen to, as the De Angelis brothers' score is downright phenomenal and dreamy. Although not exactly a legit entry in the "Sharksploitation" sub genre (like "Great White", "Monster Shark" or "Tintorera"), this film contains some of the greatest and most masterfully enacted shark attack sequences ever in low-budget cult cinema! The sharks in the cave assist Mike during the finale and explicitly devour a couple of his opponents. The action scenes are impressive at sea as well as on the mainland, with tough macho fistfights, wild car chases and shootouts. This puppy is quite obscure and difficult to find, but worth tracking down if you like tropical settings, shark-action and Castellari's versatile repertoire.

In his review of this film in "Stracult", Italian film critic Marco Giusti claimed that Franco Nero's performance was undoubtedly the worst he ever gave. Ridiculously decked out as he is in a long blonde mane and hippy garb, he can't be too far wrong I guess...Anyway, Nero plays a bitter loner who, having lost his wife and kid in a traffic accident, voluntarily enlists for dangerous missions for an unspecified organization but then, unceremoniously, quits his job and relocates to a Carribbean island whose seas harbor the carcass of a sunken plane with a fortune locked away in its safe. The problem is that the site is infested with sharks but, of course, Nero has a penchant for killing sharks with his bare hands a' la Johnny Weissmuller. Those sequences depicting Nero's particular skills reach an unheralded level of silliness when he sky dives into the water onto a moving shark and slits its torso open without batting an eyelid! And what about his dragging a shark onto his motor boat after having previously pursued it on foot?! I don't really know why I should go on writing in detail about such trash (especially since most of you probably won't ever have the chance to see this for yourselves) but, then again, why not? Anyway, there's a love scene early on between our Franco and a native girl, a couple of fistfights with the local bully (featuring a running gag of Nero sticking a piece of chewing gum onto his opponent's forehead), an alliance with a buffoonish salvage expert, a member of the organization is hot on his heels, as is the ubiquitous Edoardo Fajardo who is obviously interested in claiming the fortune for himself and, in the climax, an all-out shark attack replete with fake floating limbs.Director Casterallari (who frequently appears in his own films a' la Hitchcock...yeah, right!) has a fairly large part here as a killer pursuing the man from the Organization! He was still fixated on sharks a couple of years later when he made THE LAST SHARK (1981), a film which was partly shot in Malta and featured such second-tier American actors as James Franciscus and Vic Morrow. For his pains, Castellari was even taken to court by Steven Spielberg and Universal Studios for plagiarising JAWS (1975)...although, if one is to believe Castellari's own statements at the 61st Venice Film Festival, Spielberg and Co. were merely envious that THE LAST SHARK had been more profitable (in the expenditure/profit ratio) than JAWS itself...!!

A great Castellari with Franco Nero as a retired shark hunter! The soundtrack is A+ (another great tube from Guido and Maurizio De Angelis). Also, Take a look at Castellari, in a cameo, punching Nero in slow-motion near the end of the Movie! A must see for Nero and Castellari fans.

Franco Nero is a shark hunter and treasure seeker who has a handful of allies, and also antagonists at every corner.The film has fistfights, car chases, foot chases, seaplane vs. speedboat chases and some nicely incorporated shark attacks, but no genuine urgency. The music score is very cool, but at times you get the sense that it's expected to carry along long stretches of the film by itself. And the underwater scenes slow down the pace (inevitably).All in all, pretty forgettable stuff, but not bad. (**)